The Lost Gettesburg address (Article 130)

After the main dedication ceremony for the new National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, many of the dignitaries found their way to the First Presbyterian Church for additional memorial presentations. Earlier, from a podium overlooking the cemetery, Edward Everett had given the keynote speech, which was followed by Abraham Lincoln’s now famous (and much shorter) address. Among the two hundred people who packed the small church were President Lincoln, Secretary of State Seward, and Mr. Everett; and all three later praised the special late afternoon speech by Ohio Lt. Governor Charles Anderson, which concluded the day’s events.

Why is it that we, who are interested in almost anything about the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and his Gettysburg Address, (and we have copies of Everett’s speech as well) are only recently studying Anderson’s speech? What events at Gettysburg led to his speech? And, what was the message that he delivered which so impressed Abraham Lincoln?

Certainly, Edward Everett was expected to be the focus of the day’s events. After all, he was one of the most prominent orators of his day and people would travel miles to hear him speak. As usual, Mr. Everett, provided copies of his remarks prior to the event to newspapers, knowing the speech would be widely published the following day. President Lincoln, whose presence was considered only a courtesy, had not provided the press with copies of his speech. Further, because his remarks were so unexpectedly brief, many reporters missed transcribing what they supposed were only introductory remarks. Fortunately, Lincoln made several copies, some with very minor changes, so his address was preserved. On the other hand, Anderson’s speech, while well regarded by those in attendance, was not provided to the press and his own notes were tucked away in his private papers and “lost” for nearly one hundred and fifty years. We are now able to study the speech today because of a happenstance discovery followed by a well-written book about the “Lost Gettysburg Address” by David Dixon, which was published in 2015.

But, although an exact copy of Anderson’s speech was not published at the time, the public already knew his position on key issues, as he had given numerous other speeches which clearly stated that he considered that the Union was perpetual, and the Civil War was justified. Anderson believed that an elitist planter/merchant society in the South selfishly promulgated secession to assure the perpetuation of slavery. He also believed, unlike Lincoln, that secession was treason. Anderson firmly believed that a slave-holder/merchant alliance had duped the people of the South, and that Confederate political leaders, and a few senior military officers (but not ordinary soldiers), were traitors.

In his speech, Anderson used the phrase “of the people, by the people, and for the people” as did Lincoln. While the phrase had been around for years, it appears to have just been coincidence that both men used it on the same day. Although Anderson had heard Lincoln use the phrase in his speech earlier that day, he had written his speech several days earlier and must have seen no need to delete that phrase from his own remarks.

The following are samples of Anderson’s fiery one-hour speech. The capitalizations used for emphasis in several phrases were either underlined or enlarged in Anderson’s hand-written copy.

“We are standing over many dead. They have been laid thus low, neither by the regular gradations of natural diseases, nor by the chances of accidental calamities. They all fell fighting side by side, heart with heart, as if the multitudes were one, for their native land and their native institutions of equal laws and free government. 

A few weeks ago, a vast army, with a fanatic zeal of insane delusion against your prosperity, your peace, your liberties, and our common National Unity, marched to this very spot, - to invade, to conquer, and to destroy.  BUT THEY WERE CONFRONTED. 

Our men, the lovers of their country; the friends of equal rights, liberty and the enemies only of oppression, injustice, and despotism; leaving their own sweet homes and their dear kindred confronted that foe on the field on which we stand…the Army of Patriotism and Liberty was victorious. The Army of treason and Despotism was decisively beaten. That host of rebels, deluded and sent here by conspirators and traitors, were vanquished.

This great war then, is that conflict between Freedom and Despotism. Some among us cannot believe that at this era of civilization, Christianity, and Freedom in this republic, there could be found numbers of men, so wrongheaded, or else falsehearted, as to love despotism, rather than liberty and who vigorously conspire, betray, rebel, and wage vast war against these fundamental principles of our government and society.

Oligarchs and Despots have alone done this deed. Men, who were born to the inheritance of unjust power, nurtured by the milk of slaves; rocked in their cradles by servile hands; have been yet more indulged into an arrogance as boundless as the sea; - This is the class of men which alone has contrived and perpetuated this blackest crime of history. It is the spirit of Oligarchy, born in the purple of Despotism that has contrived, plotted, betrayed, rebelled, and warred against our national existence as a government, against our liberty, morality, our very civilization. 

And my dear countrymen, here lie in their bloody graves, the slain victims of that treachery and cruelty. Their blood cries out from the ground below us.

And of all the manifold shams and counterfeits, none have ever been so base and bald, nor yet as successful, as the counterfeit democracy of our own southern states. Their ruinous heresy of “States Rights” has been from the beginning merely a mask for the conservation and propagandism of slavery. 

We come now to consider the CHARACTER of these dead.  They were the bravest and the best, rich and poor… who, when this war was begun against the principles of our nation, swept into the ranks of our National Army. These soldiers died to save our National life. Here was the first fair trial of self-government, of a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

(The Southern States) is to be an Oligarchy, pure and simple. This is a government which, as a class is cruel, and full of warlike vigor, - that the inheritance and possession of domestic slaves only enhances these vices. A slavery-Oligarchy, the worst government imaginable.

This war will decide – one way or another – whether the risen dawn of this better era shall be quenched in eternal gloom, or shall spread and shine and glow until the black night of Despotisms shall blanch into an unending Day of universal Liberty and of calmest peace.

David Dixon’s book, “The Lost Gettysburg Address” is part archeological search, part a biography of Charles Anderson’s life, and part an analysis of the three Gettysburg addresses. He captures the theme of each speech and correctly assesses that all three speakers accomplished their individual goals; although Lincoln was at first uncertain if he had been successful.

I do disagree with Mr. Dixon on one major point. In the book, Dixon makes the assertion that Abraham Lincoln, or someone working on his political agenda, orchestrated the three speeches.  According to Dixon, Edward Everett’s speech was to outline the history and describe the events of the battle while Lincoln’s purpose was to consecrate and inspire. Then, Charles Anderson’s mission was to enflame the North to fight on and place blame for the war squarely on the shoulders of the Confederate elite. While that was the outcome, I believe it was happenstance.

First, the organizers of the Gettysburg event were determined to schedule the ceremony to accommodate Edward Everett’s availability. After all, he was, as David Dixon correctly points out, the “Oratory rock-star” of his day. Everyone expected a dramatic speech, likely close to two hours, and Mr. Everett did not disappoint his audience. On the other hand, Lincoln was invited as a courtesy and was asked only to present a few commemorative remarks, not a long speech; but of course, no one expected only three minutes.

Second, Anderson’s inclusion was not a selection by the committee, but of the Ohio Governor, who asked Anderson, the newly elected Lt. Governor to take his place. He knew Anderson was a vociferous critic of the Confederacy and also had a grand and passionate speaking style.

Third, Lincoln kept his speech to himself, until sharing it with Secretary of State Seward the night before. No one, not even Lincoln, would have presumed to try to influence the famous Edward Everett nor could anyone influence Charles Anderson either, as he was one of the most independent, some would say inflexible, men of his time.

So, who was Charles Anderson and what brought him to Gettysburg?

Anderson’s family was deeply rooted in the American Revolution, where his father served under George Washington. Although educated and trained as a lawyer, Charles started several business ventures, usually related to farming and land speculation but each time, he had to resume his legal practice which provided a more stable income. In 1858, he moved to Texas to start another agricultural business.

But, that turned out to be a mistake! His timing was terrible.

In 1860, as the debates over secession escalated throughout the South and specifically in Texas, he spoke against secession and was arrested as a Union sympathizer when Texas voted to leave the Union. He was offered a pardon if he would swear to not fight against the Confederacy, but he refused and remained a prisoner in Texas while his family was allowed to migrate back to Union territory. However, he escaped and, after a harrowing trip across Texas, he returned home to a hero’s welcome and joined the Union Army.  He was an effective officer but suffered from severe asthma and, when he was wounded in battle, he had to leave the army in 1862.

Charles’s older brothers, Larz and Robert also supported the Union. Larz was a wealthy lawyer and prominent in Republican politics, and Robert was a career Union officer, who became a Civil War legend. Robert was in command at Fort Sumter when it fell in April, 1861 and then returned to the Fort near the end of the war to again raise the same “Old Glory” flag he had to take down four years earlier.

When Charles had to leave the army, he entered politics in 1863, became Lt. Governor of Ohio, and, as we now know, was offered the opportunity to speak at Gettysburg by the Governor.

Later in his life, Anderson placed letters and documents he had accumulated over the years into storage containers. Among the documents was his hand-written thirty-nine-page copy of the address he gave at Gettysburg; and those containers remained within the Anderson family for several generations. In 2002, a researcher found the speech, but it was untitled and un-dated and did not identify a location. It was obviously for a memorial service but there were literally hundreds of such sites scattered across various states and, since the Gettysburg dedication, and the addresses by Everett and Lincoln, were so well known, the researcher did not connect the document to that event. A year later, he literally stumbled across a newspaper account from November 1863 about the Gettysburg ceremony which listed Anderson as a speaker at the church later in the day; and described parts of Anderson’s speech.

The dots were connected! The “Lost Gettysburg Address” had been found, Mr. Dixon met the researcher, and wrote his book. And now we all know.